Losing My Place but Finding Happiness Between the Pages

Hello! I was finally approved for my vey first Netgalley e-book ARC. I thought I wouldn’t like reviewing e-books, but using an e-reader or kindle app makes it super easy to take notes and highlight things I want to talk about.

I was given the opportunity to review a romance/erotica book called Willful Depravity by Ingrid Hahn.

I was so excited to pick up this book because I was in the mood for some smut and it clearly held promises of fat representation. This book delivered. Not only did this provide loads (pun intended) of hot steamy sex scenes, there were parts the genuinely made me laugh. Like this line “Giles would sooner suck the boils on Satan’s icy worm of a prick than ever belong to his father.” There was also a part where Miss Emery was daydreaming of what it would be like to talk openly about sexual encounters. The dream included dialogue that wouldn’t be considered polite in even today’s society but it was still quite hilarious to picture it happening as the character did.

The pacing is well done and you don’t have to wait long for things to heat up. I do think the sex scenes where well written but some of the language was distracting. I found myself having to look up what some vocabulary meant. I do not think leaving this vocabulary out would take away from the story. Also, the term “quim” was used in place of “pussy” and it distracted me. Some other fun verbiage included “cockstand” and “welcoming cunny.” And this one “wiped her clean of the viscous liquid he’d spilled on her skin.” Are you blushing yet?

Something I really liked about the characters is that the main male love interest was very much about consent. He was so much into consent that it seemed out of place for the time period. Don’t get me wrong, consent is key but it was talked about explicitly in several areas and it didn’t feel like it belonged in the era.

For erotica, this book was well done. If you came for the sex, then you will get ALL the sex. I almost wonder if the fat rep teeters on fetishizing plus size women. That kind of made me uncomfortable which is why I knocked it down a star. Like, I don’t need to know about her “plump wrists” to understand she’s a curvy girl.

Check this book out if you are looking for some steaminess with a touch of diversity in the main female protagonist.